Butterbeer Caps
by Willow-Bee the Cat
Summary: Stargate crossover. A past mistake comes back to haunt Jack O'Neill several months after the mission to Abydos. Left ophaned, Luna is sent to live with a relative she didn't know she had, leading to changes in her time at Hogwarts. Eventual HarryLuna.
1. Prologue

Prologue

"If you walk out that door, don't expect to find me here when you get back!"

Major Jack O'Neill tried not to snap back at Sarah, reminding himself that it was the hormones talking. His wife, Sarah, was in the seventh month of pregnancy and was in an overly emotional state. He was sure she didn't really mean it.

"I'll return as soon as I can," said Jack, walking out of the house.

He winced at the sound of glass shattering, followed closely by Sarah yelling, "I want a divorce!"

* * *

There were times when Jack despised his job. This was one of them. He'd tried get Sarah to talk to him, but she was so upset that he was being shipped out two months before their child was due that she'd refused to even take his calls.

Not to mention that he was stuck in England dealing with some sort of terrorist thing. Apparently the Brits were worried that it might spread to the Americas and had called for help. Which was why Jack and his team were in the middle of London making sure that these terrorists never again thought about entering the US.

Although why the military had been called in instead of the FBI or CIA or some other group much more qualified for this sort of thing, Jack wasn't sure. Something about them being too dangerous.

The first part of the mission had already been completed, leaving Jack with two days off. Which was why he was in a dingy pub he'd found entirely by accident, trying to drown his sorrows. Who in their right mind named a bar the "Leaky Cauldron" anyway? Probably some English thing.

Even though he could care less about strange fashion statements, Jack couldn't help but notice the clothing the patrons wore. Men and women both in ankle length dress thingies, some with cloaks as well. Did they think they were witches or something? He fought back the urge to laugh as he motioned for the barkeep, a man by the name of Tom, to bring him another whisky.

He'd moved up from beer to whisky, about an hour earlier. It was some sort of local brew called fire whisky, and rather good, if he did say so himself.

Jack blinked, then decided he was seeing things when a blonde walked out of the fire place in a flash of green light. The blonde sat down at a table near his, allowing Jack to examine her further.

She was, he had to admit, beautiful. She had white blonde hair, the palest skin he'd ever seen on a living being, and eyes the palest shade of gray. Her body was nicely shaped, although by American standards she could stand to lose around twenty pounds. Jack had always preferred women who looked healthy instead of emaciated.

The woman looked in his general direction, with her large, silvery eyes. Seeing the look in her eyes, Jack gave the woman a measuring glance. It wasn't often that one saw a thousand-yard stare on anybody not in a military uniform.

After several long moments, the woman stood and moved to his table. The faraway look was still in her eyes, despite being aware of her surroundings.

"You're actions won't make a single difference," said the woman, her accent marking her as an upper class woman. "The Dark Lord does not consider Muggle soldiers from across the pond to be a threat."

Dark Lord? Oh yeah, that's what the leader of those terrorists was referred to as. From what he understood, the Brits were afraid to even say his name.

"What do you know?" And for that matter, how did she know who he was? The team wasn't even in UK on an official level.

"Please," she said, the thousand-yard stare replaced by a look of grief. "They will kill you. Torture you to death for their twisted enjoyment."

"What do you mean?" demanded Jack.

"They plan to attack tomorrow night, just before dawn," she continued, ignoring his question. "Don't be there when they arrive."

"Why not? Do you know anything else?"

Even if the woman was off her rocker, Jack knew that they'd be moving from safe house before morning. If this woman could find him, then she could obviously find the rest of the team.

"Please, be out of there before it's too late."

"Why did you tell me this?"

A tear fell from the woman's eye. "My brother-my brother killed him." The thousand-yard stare returned as the woman muttered under her breath in a singsong voice, "Blood, blood everywhere. On my hands and in my hair." A hysterical laugh escaped her mouth as more tears fell.

"Whom did your brother kill?" asked Jack, making sure to keep his voice low.

"Not going to be a wedding anymore. Can't marry a dead man," whispered the woman. "Lucius destroys everything I love."

"Is Lucius your brother?" Obviously the woman needed professional help, but the name sounded familiar.

"The great and powerful Lucius Malfoy, second only to the Dark Lord," she said, her words clearly mocking the man. "We must all bow to his royal highness. Long live Lucius, king of the vain and moronic."

"Ri-ight," said Jack.

Now he remembered. Lucius Malfoy had been mentioned in one of the reports as high up in the organization. The woman actually looked quite like the picture they had of the man.

"So Lucius killed your man," Jack said carefully. "And now you want to help."

"This is the last chance I'll have," she said.

"Why? What's going to happen?"

"The devil shall cast out the dawn when the moon is conceived," she stated.

Definitely insane, decided Jack. Distracted by some sort of disruption near the back of the pub, Jack didn't notice the woman putting something in his whisky.

"So, who are you, anyway?" he asked.

"Eos. Eos Malfoy," she said softly. "I was going to be the Black Dawn but the devil killed the Little King." Another half hysterical laugh. "Poor Regulus, never knew who he was getting himself into. He only wanted to make the Hunter proud."

Jack drank some of his whisky, once more keeping a close eye on the woman.

* * *

Jack stumbled back into the safe house a little after noon, still trying to remember what had happened the night before. It wasn't very clear, but after meeting the crazy woman-Eos, his mind supplied-he'd gone to one of the rooms above the pub with her. He tried not to curse. Sarah would kill him if she ever found out about this.

Nearly bumping into his CO, Frank Cromwell, Jack remembered Eos's warning.

* * *

Molly Weasley tried not to cluck disapprovingly. What in the name of Merlin had Helios been thinking, marrying a woman like Eos Malfoy? Everybody knew that she'd been disowned by the Malfoy family for good reason. After all, Eos was a… _scarlet woman_ of the worst sort.

Not ten months after the death of her betrothed, Regulus Black, Eos had given birth to a child. A bastard child. That was not to say that Molly didn't like the child. Luna was one of the sweetest babies she'd ever met.

Helios Lovegood was much to good for a woman such as Eos Malfoy, even if he did run a paper such as the Quibbler. He'd even claimed Luna as his daughter; regardless of the fact that everyone knew the girl wasn't his.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Nobody was sure how long it was, but everyone agreed that several hours had passed between the deaths of Eos and Helios Lovegood and the time Aurors were contacted. Even more disturbing was the state young Luna Lovegood was found in. Even Mad-Eye Moody, who had been exposed to things most other Aurors couldn't even imagine, was disturbed.

It was Kingsley Shacklebolt who tried to coax the nine year old from her hiding place. Somehow, Luna had found a way wedge herself into a closet that should not have been able to hold her. The girl stared at nothing with her large silver eyes and Kingsley was quite certain that the girl had seen whatever had happened to her parents.

* * *

"Have you had any luck?"

"No, Madame Bones," said Kingsley. "The Malfoys refuse to take the girl in and Helios Lovegood had no living relatives."

"Wasn't there some big scandal a couple years ago?" said Mad-Eye. "Lucius Malfoy disowned his sister because she had a child out of wedlock."

Madame Bones nodded. "I remember that. Try a parentis potion. Maybe the girl has other relatives."

* * *

Jack O'Neill had quickly come to the decision that retirement was, while not particularly interesting, rather enjoyable. After the whole Abydos thing, he'd briefly considered staying in the Air Force, but had realized that nothing could beat traveling to another world and taking on a parasite pretending to be a god.

He'd tried to work things out with Sarah, but they'd quickly realized that it wasn't meant to be. The divorce had been finalized a little over two months earlier. He'd let Sarah have the house, taking only what he owned originally, the things he'd bought over the years, and some pictures.

He rather liked this new house. Admittedly, that was because of the deck in the back of the house. It was perfect for stargazing.

Hearing a knock at the door, Jack got up from his couch. The hockey game wasn't going anywhere.

* * *

It had a taken a couple days, but Kingsley had managed to find the identity of Luna Lovegood's father. What a woman such as Eos Lovegood nee Malfoy had seen in an American Muggle, Kingsley didn't know, but Jonathon O'Neill was the girl's father. He hadn't been able to find out much about O'Neill, but he did know that the man was former military.

Like most wizards, Kingsley Shacklebolt had minimal knowledge of how the Muggle world worked. Left with no better way to contact the man, Kingsley had arranged to take a portkey to Colorado Springs.

Kingsley looked around as he approached the door. Though an obviously Muggle area, the neighborhood was nice, in a middle class sort of way. Hoping that O'Neill had nothing against magic, Kingsley knocked on the door.

After several long moments, the door opened to reveal a tall brown haired, brown eyed man.

"Yeah?" said the man.

"Are you Jonathon O'Neill?" asked Kingsley.

"Whatever you're selling, I'm not interested," said the man.

"I'm not selling anything. I'm with-" What was it called again? The Muggle agency the Aurors were supposed to say they were a part of if they were talking to civilians. "MI-5."

He pulled out his I.D., which was supposed to show him as an agent of MI-5 when seen by a non-magical person. The man looked at the I.D. for a long moment.

"What does the United Kingdom want with me?" asked the man. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm retired. Oh, and it's Jack, not Jonathon."

"This isn't about your military career," said Kingsley. "This is about your daughter."

"Daughter? I don't have a daughter," said O'Neill.

"According to the birth certificate, you're the girl's father," said Kingsley.

"Look, I don't have a child. I haven't been with anybody but my ex-wife since I joined the Air Force," insisted O'Neill. He paused, as if remembering something. "What's the woman's name. The mother of this child you think I fathered."

"Eos Lovegood nee Malfoy."

"Shit," muttered O'Neill. "Pretty blonde? Kinda crazy?"

Kingsley nodded, remembering well what Eos Lovegood had been like. If not for the fact that she was beyond brilliant, the Department of Mysteries would have let the woman go when she'd gotten pregnant.

"Come on in," said O'Neill, motioning for Kingsley to enter the house.

Once they were seated at the kitchen table, Kingsley began to explain, "Eos and her husband Helios died last week and neither of them have living family members willing to take the girl in."

"So you came to me," said O'Neill. "What does military intelligence have to do with all this?"

"Mrs. Lovegood was a scientist with a… different branch of the government," he explained. "All of her projects were highly classified. Apparently she'd taken to bringing those projects home with her. There was an accident of some sort-we're still trying to work out what happened-and as a result, she and husband died. Luna, your daughter, saw the entire thing."

O'Neill let out several curses he didn't recognize. "How is she holding up?"

"Luna just sits there, staring into space. She'll answer direct questions, but I wouldn't expect more than one or two word answers from her. It took half a day for me to get her out of her hiding place when we found her."

* * *

It took four days for Jack to arrange everything (mostly thanks to old contacts and people that owed him favors), including checking out Shacklebolt's story. He'd arranged to take guardianship of the girl and had even worked it out so that she had dual citizenship.

Because he was an American citizen and had lived in America for five years before her birth (not including whenever he was shipped out), Luna had been considered an American citizen as well, once he'd applied for an American passport for her. It had taken a bit of help to get the passport so quickly. Once he'd thought about it, Jack had realized that when Luna was older, she'd probably want to keep her English citizenship as well, and had arranged for dual citizenship.

Jack had wanted to catch the first flight possible to London, but had quickly come to the realization that if the girl was as traumatized as Shacklebolt had said; she'd need some help. A trustworthy child psychologist had been found, Jack had registered Luna for school (which would not be back in session for another month and a half), and he'd fixed up the spare room so that Luna would have a place to sleep.

Along with that, he'd also arranged for whatever her parents had left her to be held in trust until Luna was eighteen.

Earlier that day, he'd checked into a hotel in Sidmouth, Devon. It was the closest hotel to Ottery St. Catchpole he could find. With the help of Shacklebolt, Jack had arranged to see Luna. Apparently she was staying with some neighbors who had been kind enough to offer to take the girl in if no family had been found.

He'd been planning on meeting the girl, then with or without her help, going to pack up her stuff to ship it to Colorado Springs. He'd already arranged a flight back for late the next afternoon.

Pulling up to the Weasley's home, Jack blinked. How did that house stay up? He got out of the car as a plump, redheaded woman walked out of the house.

"Uh, hi," said Jack. "Are you Molly Weasley? I'm Jack O'Neill."

"Yes," she said. "Luna is out with the children playing in the orchard. Why don't you come in and have some tea. They'll be back soon."

"Ok," said Jack. He wasn't much of a tea person, but… when in Rome and all that.

Molly poured him a cup of tea then set about putting together enough sandwiches to feed a squad of marines. "So, what do you do for a living?"

"I'm retired. Before that I was a Colonel in the United States Air Force," said Jack. "How is Luna holding up?"

Molly shook her head. "Poor thing. She doesn't say anything, but she does play with Ginny. Ginny's my youngest and the same age as Luna."

* * *

A little over half an hour had passed when a heard of red haired boys clamored into the kitchen. There had to be five boys, ranging in age from one who looked to be in his late teens to another that couldn't have been more than ten. After the boys sat down and began to grab for the sandwiches, two small girls wandered into the kitchen.

One of the girls had red hair and brown eyes while the other… was definitely his daughter. Admittedly, she had the same coloration of her mother, right down to the silver eyes, but there was no mistaking which was which. There was an unfocused look in her eyes as she followed Ginny. Shit. The thousand yard stare.

Luna looked up at him, her eyes momentarily focusing. "Hello Father."

With that she sat down next to Ginny and took a sandwich from the platter in the middle of the table. Everybody at the table gaped at her. Obviously this was new.

"So you know who I am already," said Jack.

"Of course I do, Father," said Luna. "Mummy said my father was a grandson of Niall."

With that Jack was reminded of the conversation he'd had with Eos, a decade earlier. Either this was genetic, or Eos had been like that because of whatever her brother had done to her fiancé.

"While my grandfather actually was named Niall, I think the man you're talking about died a couple centuries ago," said Jack.

"When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow. We're catching a flight from London."

She nodded, the faraway look never leaving her eyes. "Will I be an O'Neill or a Lovegood?"

"That depends entirely on what you want."

"Ok." She went back to nibbling on her sandwich. "What about clothing?"

Knowing that it might not be the best thing to mention, Jack said, "I'm going to go to your house this afternoon and pack up your clothing. If there's anything you want to take with you, just tell me and I'll find it."

She nodded. "The books. All the books. And the pictures." She bit her lip, looking as if she might cry. "The books and pictures and my butterbeer cap necklace."

* * *

With the help of the two oldest Weasley boys, Jack went to find the Lovegood residence. Both boys, Charlie and Percy, held boxes for whatever Jack decided to pack. At the mention of books, Jack had thought he might not have enough boxes, until Molly volunteered to get him some more.

"So, there are six of you," said Jack, not really sure what else to say.

"Seven," said Charlie. "Our brother Bill moved out last year. He got a job with a bank and is living in Egypt."

"Oh. What does he do?"

Percy and Charlie shared a look before Percy said, "We're not sure."

Entering the house, Jack said, "Charlie, why don't you and Percy go pack the books and pictures. I'll go get Luna's clothing."

* * *

Halfway through packing Luna's clothing, Jack came to the realization that Luna only had skirts, blouses and dresses, none of which came above her ankles or showed anything above her elbow. Then he remembered that despite the heat, Ginny, Luna, and Molly had all worn outfits with long sleeves and skirts that came down to their ankles.

With a mental shrug he went back to packing. He could buy her normal clothing later on.

* * *

Luna gave Jack a small smile when he handed her the butterbeer cap necklace. With a twirl, she ran off to go play chess with Ginny.

They sat in Ginny's room, far enough away from the boys that nobody would disturb them. Luna glanced at the door, then at Ginny.

"We won't see each other again," Luna said in a low voice, knowing she spoke the truth. "Not until Hogwarts."

"But you're only-"

"Father's a Muggle and he lives halfway across the world."

Ginny sniffled. "I don't want you to go."

"I'll write every week," said Luna. "We'll need to use Muggle mail. He doesn't know about magic."

"But I don't know how."

"It won't be that hard. Just ask the people in the post office for help. I'll tell you my address when I write."

"I'll miss you."

"Me too."

Ginny was the only friend she'd had in Ottery St. Catchpole. The only one who didn't think her crazy or weird. And she'd miss Ginny so much. But they'd see each other again. Just not right away.

* * *

Jack looked down as he felt something tug on the edge of his jacket. Luna stood next to him, her eyes actually focused on him.

"Can I have your address?" she asked in a small voice.

"Huh? Sure. This for letters?"

Luna nodded. "I know where Ginny lives but she doesn't know where I live."

"Mmmm." Writing the address on a piece of paper Molly handed him, Jack asked, "Do you want me to write down instructions for sending an international letter as well? All you need to do is make sure you have enough postage, so long as you write out the address just like I have on here, but you'll need to go to the post office the first time to find out how much the postage is."

"Yes please."

When Jack was done, Luna wandered back up the stairs. He turned back around to see a bemused looking man.

"Jack, this is my husband, Arthur," explained Molly. "Arthur, this is Jack O'Neill, Luna's father."

The two men shook hands, though Arthur still looked confused. "Did Luna just…"

Molly nodded. "She's been speaking all day. Since Jack showed up."

"She's been acting like normal," added Charlie. "Well, except for the stare."

"Then she…" Jack trailed off, unsure of what to say.

"Luna's always been a bit… imaginative and prone to flights of fancy," said Arthur. "And unusually solemn for a girl that age. So, Jack, was it? I'm assuming that Molly has already asked about your job. Do you have a wife?"

Jack realized immediately that the Weasleys were just trying to make sure that Luna ended up in a good home. With that in mind, Jack said, "Divorced. Irreconcilable differences."

Molly's lips thinned, and she looked as if she wanted to say something. Arthur ignored his wife's expression, continuing his questions. "And the rest of your family?"

"An older sister, two younger brothers and three younger sisters," said Jack. "I have nineteen nieces and nephews. My parents are still alive. I've never bothered to count the number of aunts, uncles, and cousins I have, but well over fifty."

"Do you have any children?" asked Molly.

He felt the emotion drain from his face. "My son died nearly a year ago. He would have been ten next month."

Molly had paled. She looked as if she might start to cry. Arthur had a hard look on his face.

"Nobody should outlive their own child," said Arthur. It was then that Jack noticed the boys had cleared out of them room. "Gwyneth was our oldest."

"She and my brothers, Gideon and Fabian were murdered ten years ago," said Molly, in a small voice. "She hid her brothers then went to help her uncles."

"Charlie shot himself with my gun."

* * *

Luna sat in her seat, next to the window. The plane ride had been rather interesting, she'd never flown on anything other than a broom before that. She knew that Ginny had cried after she left and though she felt sad as well, Luna knew that she would see Ginny again.

There were only two more years before she could go to Hogwarts. Sure, there were several very good schools in the United States, but Luna had no desire to attend any of them.

"O'Neill."

"Huh?" said her father.

"I want to be Luna O'Neill."

* * *

Luna quickly settled into Jack's house. With his help they'd decorated her bedroom, painting the night sky on her walls and ceiling. Three out of four walls were covered with bookshelves. On these shelves were the books and pictures from her former house.

Luna was just grateful that he hadn't questioned the titles of the books. He probably thought they were fictional or something.

She had been taken to a psychologist several times, but these meetings had stopped quickly enough. Luna had managed to confuse the woman so badly that she'd finally given up, declaring Luna the "most incorrigible brat" she'd ever had the misfortune to meet. While Jack had yelled at the woman, Luna had smiled and twirled around the office. It had taken less time than she'd thought it would to get rid of the psychologist.

"Luna!"

"Coming Father," she said, just loud enough for him to hear her.

Since school would be starting in two weeks, Jack had arranged for them to go up to his cabin in Minnesota for a week. Luna wasn't really sure what one would do at such a place, but it was sure to be interesting, if only because she hadn't exposed to many Muggle activities before.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_Ginny,_

_I don't think I like Muggle school. It's interesting enough, I suppose, but the other children are obviously in need of a good exorcism. The infestation of Adhjisods is out of control. _

_I do like science, though. Biology is so interesting. You should ask your mother if you could go to Muggle school as well. I'm sure you'd love the math classes. They're far beyond anything your mother taught us, and I'm not even in an advanced class. Father has been helping me with science and math. He's been teaching me beyond the Fourth Grade level._

_For all that Father plays the part of the fool, he's really much more intelligent than he lets on. Not only does he have a doctorate in Chemistry (that's like Potions), but he also has a masters in Mathematics and Observational Astronomy. When I asked, he said he had nothing better to do when stuck in the infirmary, so he studied._

_Anyway, Father is working on his doctorate in Astronomy as well, but I'm not supposed to know that. Personally, I find Theoretical Astrophysics to be much more interesting than Observational Astronomy (not that I don't like it). I don't understand most of it yet, but Father is helping me with the math. _

_I rather liked our trip up to Minnesota. Father thinks I imagined it, but I'm sure that I saw a Sasquatch while we were out hiking. _

_How are things in Devon? Is Ronald still being a git? Have the twins caused mass chaos? Does Percy still have a Heionvouh following him? We should really do something about that before Percy becomes a Ministry stooge-or worse, an accountant. Does Charlie still want to marry a dragon?_

_How are you? You know, there are lots of other children in Muggle school, so long as one doesn't mind being around Muggles. _

_Mars has been unusually bright. I think something's going to happen soon._

Luna 

_P.S. If you want, I can send you some books on the subjects._

Ginny read the letter for what must have been the twelfth time. Luna had been the only witch her age within far too many kilometers and Ginny had to admit that, without Luna around to play with, she was lonely. Maybe a Muggle school wasn't such a bad idea.

* * *

"Please."

"Don't you think it's a little advanced?"

"Father," said Luna. "Have you read any of her papers?"

"You read the papers she published?" said Jack. "I didn't know you understood that much."

"Well, not all of it," said Luna. "But her theories about wormholes and time travel are intriguing."

"Oh, fine."

Luna gave him a smile, hugged him, then wandered out of the house. Sometimes he wondered about that girl.

She was turning out to be a real bookworm. For some reason, Jack still wasn't sure why, Luna seemed to soak up anything and everything he could teach her about math and science, astronomy in particular. The rate at which she learned was rather frightening, actually. Two and a half months of living with him, and she was already on college level calculus.

Although, Kingsley had mentioned that her mother had been a scientist. Maybe it was genetic.

If Luna really wanted to go see some sort of presentation thingie at the Air Force Academy, he saw no reason to refuse her. He could get her in, thanks to being a former Colonel, and though it wasn't his particular field, he did find astrophysics interesting.

Capt. Dr. Samantha Carter. The name was familiar, but he didn't remember where he'd heard it before.

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" asked Molly.

"Yes Mum."

Steeling herself, Molly walked into the Muggle school. Why her daughter wanted to go to one, Molly wasn't sure, but she had a feeling that it was all thanks to Luna. Reminding herself, that it was a school, and not something worse, Molly went to register her daughter.

_

* * *

Luna,_

_Ron thinks I'm insane, but you're right, Muggle school is interesting. Math and science are fun, but history is so much better. Why didn't you tell me how interesting their novels are? I just started the Hobbit, by Tolkien. He's wrong about magical creatures, but the book is way better than that stupid comic book about Muggles that Ron reads._

_Everybody's off at Hogwarts, so it's only Ron and I at home. At least I have something to do. Ron just lays about reading and flying and playing chess against himself. It's rather pathetic. I can't wait until he goes off to Hogwarts next year._

_Mum thinks I've gone nutters because of how much I like school. Did you know that there's a library in town? It's not that big, but I can take out Muggle books for free._

_Oh, I have to go. I need to finish my homework._

_Ginny_

_P.S. What do you mean about Mars being bright?_

* * *

"Any questions?"

Sam Carter looked at the audience, happy that it had gone so well. Her eyes fell on two people near the center of the room. A man and a girl who couldn't have been more then ten. She hadn't expected somebody so young to attend. How did she even get in?

Realizing that the girl was the only person with her hand up, Sam gave a mental sigh, then pointed to her, saying, "Yes?"

"How can one be sure that a solar flare would work?" she asked. "It's just, considering the odds of a wormhole passing through a star at exactly the right moment, such an event couldn't happen more than once a century. Not to mention that this is all useless unless one finds a way to harness a wormhole, and time it perfectly. At the moment we don't even find out about solar flares until after they happen.

"Which is why one must wonder if such a thing is even feasible. There are so many variables that could effect it, that it would be nigh on impossible to successfully use a wormhole for time travel. Also, the possibilities of creating a paradox in time would make time travel inadvisable. Or the traveler could accidentally create an alternate dimension." The girl paused, obviously thinking. "Quite honestly, I think it would be much safer to try to find a way to use a wormhole to travel to another planet or galaxy than even consider time travel."

She put her hand on the podium for support as the girl sat back down. The man next to the girl had obviously paled. Did she know about the Stargate? Did that man know about the Stargate?

Sam closed her eyes for a moment, then began to answer the girl.

* * *

Jack's mind raced. Now he knew where he'd seen Capt. Carter before. She had been the main scientist on the Stargate Program. Originally, she'd been meant to go with them to Abydos, but General West had vetoed the idea.

He'd never met Carter, but he'd seen her personnel file. She'd been transferred to the Pentagon right after Daniel had figured out how to get the Stargate to work.

How Luna had come up with that question, Jack didn't know, but obviously Carter had thought of the Stargate as well. He hadn't known that the military had considered using the gate for time travel. It was possible, but Luna had a point about the improbability of such an event.

After a couple more questions, Carter concluded the presentation. As people got up to leave, Jack motioned for Luna to stay in her seat. He had to talk to Carter, explain that he hadn't told the girl anything about the program.

Once the room had cleared and people had stopped swarming Carter, Jack stood.

"Luna, wait here, for a moment," said Jack. "I need to speak to Capt. Carter."

"Yes Father."

* * *

Sam's eyes narrowed as she realized the man who'd been with the little girl was approaching her. She continued to pack up, waiting patiently.

"Capt. Carter?"

She looked up at the man. "Yes?"

"Jack O'Neill, formerly Colonel," he said. "I retired six months ago."

"And?"

"We were stationed together," he said, voice low. "At Cheyenne Mountain. Deep space radar telemetry."

Her eyes widened. He'd been at the Stargate program. "When General Ryan finds out you told a child classified material-"

He cut her off. "I didn't tell Luna anything. I don't even know how she understood anything you were saying. Astrophysics is a bit advanced for a nine year old."

Sam gave him a hard look. "I don't remember seeing you on base."

"I was brought in right before you were reassigned."

She glared at him. "Then you-"

"With Dr. Jackson, yes," he said. "Before you ask, I had nothing to do with your reassignment. And all things considered, it was probably for the best that it happened this way."

"I heard that only three came back," she said, careful to keep her voice down.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that only three people, including myself returned from that _training exercise_," he said.

"Of course," said Sam. "So Luna is…"

"My daughter."

"Ah. Why did you bring her to this?"

Jack shrugged. "She begged. There were puppy dog faces involved."

She laughed. "Do you mind if I speak to her?"

"Go for it," he said. "I'm sure she'll love talking to you. I've heard nothing but Capt. Dr. Carter this, Capt. Dr. Carter that for the past two weeks."

Sam nodded, then walked over to the girl, who was waiting patiently. Luna looked over at Sam, her eyes momentarily focusing on her.

"You're Capt. Dr. Samantha Carter," said Luna.

"You can call me Sam," she said. "So I hear that you've read some of my papers. What do you think?"

"They make sense-I think," she said. "I still don't understand most of the math and physics. Father has only just started teaching me calculus. I like your theories, though."

"Really?" said Sam, noting the unfocused, thousand-yard stare. Why would a child have a look like that?

"Uh huh," said Luna.

"So your father is teaching you calculus."

"Math at school is boring," said Luna, as her stomach growled.

"I didn't realize it was so late," said Jack. "Come on, let's go scrounge up some lunch."

As Luna bit her lip, Sam said, "I'm sure the three of us could find something to eat in Mitchell Hall, if you're interested.

Jack looked at Luna, then back at Sam. "How long are you here for?"

"The rest of the week. I've been asked to be a guest speaker in several classes."

"Do you have anything else to do today?"

"No. Why?"

"Why don't you come out to eat with us," said Jack. "O'Malley's has great food."

Sam looked down at Luna. "Oh, fine."

_

* * *

Ginny,_

_Father went out on three dates last week. I rather like the woman Father is courting. She's a scientist and soldier. The only problem is, she lives in Washington D.C. But she comes out to Colorado a lot to help teach at the Air Force Academy, so that's not too bad. _

_She's a theoretical astrophysicist (that's a Muggle science that combines Arithmancy and Astronomy) and she studies the most interesting things. _

_How is Muggle school working out for you? Does Ronald still think it a waste of time?Have you discovered anymore books?_

_Luna_

_P.S. I doubt it matters anymore. Mars is back to normal._

* * *

Sam let out a laugh. "I don't think there was really a Sasquatch." Noticing Luna's pout, Sam added, "He probably lives up in Canada."

Luna nodded. "There's probably lots more snow and trees and place for him to hide."

"Mmmhmm," agreed Sam.

Having no desire to deal with either her father or brother (for some reason, their arguing had gotten even worse this year), Sam had quickly agreed to go up to Minnesota with Jack and Luna for Christmas.

She still wasn't sure why, but Sam had agreed to go out on a date Jack after that first meeting with him three and a half months earlier. And Sam had to admit that she was grateful that she'd accepted. Jack was, by far, the best man she'd dated in… ever.

Although, with the exception of Jonas Hansen, Jack was the only man she'd ever gone on more than three dates with. To compare Jonas to Jack was insulting. While they'd both been heavily involved with Black Ops (for all that Jack refused to explain most of what he'd done for the Air Force, claiming it was classified, Sam knew what "classified" meant), Jack had proved he was strong enough to handle it while Jonas had… broken.

One only had to spend some time with Luna to realize how good a man Jack was. Jack doted on that girl. Jack was an amazing father. Sure, he wasn't particularly strict, but a girl like Luna didn't need a strict father. All things considered, Luna was amazingly well adjusted.

Sam wasn't sure exactly what happened, but from what she'd gathered, Luna had witnessed the deaths of her mother and stepfather nearly six months earlier. Admittedly, when she wasn't paying attention to anything in particular, the girl tended to have a thousand-yard stare, but so far she didn't seem to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or any other psychological problems.

No matter what Luna's teacher said, Sam had to agree with Jack, Luna's imagination was just Luna being Luna. According to Jack, who had learned it from the Weasleys, Luna had always been more than a bit imaginative.

Sam was still a bit surprised that Luna had managed to keep her friendship with Ginny Weasley going. The two girls lived on completely different continents, but still managed to send regular letters to each other.

With Jack in town running some last minute errands (something about Luna's gift), Sam had been left to watch Luna. They'd made Christmas cookies that morning, something Luna had obviously enjoyed.

"Do you want to go build a snowman?"

Luna nodded. "Can we?"

"I suggested it, didn't I?" said Sam. "Why don't you go change into jeans and put on your jacket?"

Luna bit her lip. "I don't have any jeans."

She'd noticed that Luna always seemed to wear brightly colored shirts and tops, but she hadn't been expecting anything like that. "Why not?"

"I dunno," shrugged Luna. "Mummy never wore trousers and she only ever bought or made skirts and dresses. Father tried to get me to buy trousers a couple months ago, but I don't like wearing them, so I didn't get any."

"Oh." Sam gave a mental shrug. "Why don't you put on an extra wool skirt and a second pair of stockings, then."

"Okay."

* * *

Jack grinned at the sight outside his cabin. Luna and Sam were holding up two scarfs as if trying to decide which would look best on the snowman they'd made.

Making sure the box next to him was covered with a blanket, Jack picked it up and got out of the pickup. He walked toward the cabin, not wanting Luna to get too close to the box until the next morning.

"I'd go with the plaid," he said by way of greeting.

Luna nodded and took the plaid scarf from Sam. Sam whispered something to Luna then walked over to Jack. She gave him a hug, followed closely by a kiss, careful not to disturb the box.

"Is that Luna's gift?" Sam asked, carefully keeping her voice low.

Jack nodded. "Yup."

* * *

By the time Luna woke up, Jack had already prepared breakfast. After a quick meal, the three of them went to open presents. Luna was happily settled on the couch, next to Sam when Jack put a box in her lap.

"Here, this is yours."

Luna's eyes widened as the box rocked from side to side. She carefully took the blanket off the box. In it was a small, white, brown and black puppy. Lifting the dog from the box, Luna cuddled it to her body, happiness quite clear on her face.

A rare giggle escaped as the puppy began to lick her face. She pet it, letting the box fall to the floor. Not letting go of the puppy, Luna hugged Jack, then Sam.

"What breed is it? Is it a girl or a boy?" asked Luna, excitedly. "Do I get to name it?"

"Beagle, girl, and of course you get to name her," said Jack.

"Hypatia," said Luna.

"After the Greek mathematician, astronomer, and astrologist," said Sam.

Luna nodded, giggling once more as Hypatia tried to clean her ear.

* * *

Sam watched Luna run around the yard, playing with Hypatia. The puppy still hadn't figured out where the snowballs went when they hit the ground. She had to say that this was the happiest she'd seen Luna in the entire time she'd known the girl.

Feeling two arms wrap around her waist, Sam leaned back. A contented sigh escaped her as she was surrounded by his musky scent.

"Sam, can we talk?"

She felt the blood drain from her face. Those words were rarely, if ever, good.

"Y-yes?"

"I love you," he said. "You're beautiful, the smartest person I've ever met, you're amazing with Luna, and you're far too good for me. And I don't even want to think about a life without you in it. I'm just a broken down old warhorse past his prime and I'd understand if you said no. I just-will you marry me?"

Sam was silent for a long moment that seemed to stretch out forever. They lived on opposite sides of the country, both her father and brother would hate him, she loved him. She knew exactly what life would be like without Jack. And she didn't want that life.

"Yes. Yes, I will marry you."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

_Ginny,_

_Father asked the woman he was courting to marry him. They haven't set a date for the wedding yet, but they're thinking about sometime within the next couple months. I already asked him and Sam (that's her name), and they said that you and your family were invited. They'll send an invitation when they set a date._

_Oh, Father gave me a puppy for Christmas. I've named her Hypatia. Do you think I'd be allowed to take a dog as my familiar instead of an owl, cat or toad? Although, a toad would be rather nice. Maybe I should go catch one._

_Please tell your mother that I loved the jumper she sent. Thank you for the books. I've already started the Hobbit. _

_Why are Slytherins evil? Admittedly, many Slytherins have ambitions that bring them into conflict, but ambition and the cunning needed for those ambitions are a prerequisite of the house. Can one assume that a Slytherin is not brave just because he or she knows when and when not to fight? Are Slytherins disloyal, or has the mistrust of the other houses made them this way? _

_With Father and Sam getting married, I've started to think about Mummy a bit more. As you no doubt know, she was a Slytherin. Is it wrong for me to want to think of my mother as a good person, despite-or perhaps because-of the house she was sorted into._

_If you and your family come for the wedding, remember to be careful. Gremlins have been known to try to take apart aircrafts if the person in the window seat becomes suspicious. _

Luna

* * *

"Hello?"

"Dad? It's me."

"Sammie," said Jacob, wondering why his daughter was calling so soon after the last time they spoke. "Is something wrong?"

"What? No. Nothing's wrong… I'm calling because something's right."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm going to at the Academy next Thursday and Friday. Could we meet in Colorado Springs? I'll be there all weekend."

"Sammie, what's going on?"

"I'm seeing somebody, and I thought you two should meet."

"And you and this man can't come to see me because…"

"Do you remember that episode of the Twilight Zone where a gremlin destroys a plane?"

What on earth? "Yeah."

"Apparently Luna saw that episode and she doesn't want to get on a plane now that she-and I quote-'knows the dangers inherent in airplane travel,'" Sam said, with a bit of a laugh. "Of course, this is the girl that thinks that the Sasquaches, the Jersey Devil, and an army of Jackalopes united to destroy the 'alien menace.'"

"Alien menace?"

"The little gray Roswell aliens, Dad."

"Oh." This had to be the most confusing conversation he'd ever had with his daughter. "So Luna is…"

"Jack's daughter. She'd very sweet but her imagination tends to run away and take her with it." Sam paused. "She'll be ten in three weeks. I'm sure she'd appreciate a book. Personally, I'd recommend C.S. Lewis or something similar. She's on the last Lord of the Rings book already."

She was serious about this man, then. "And Jack is?"

"The man I'm seeing." With a sigh, Sam continued. "Jonathon 'Jack' O'Neill. Two Ls. He was a Colonel before he retired from the Air Force. Yes, I know he was Special Forces. No, I don't care. Anything else you want to know, or will the background check you're about to run be enough?"

"Sammie…"

"Are you even going to try to deny what you're going to do the moment I get off the phone?"

"I just worry about you."

"Please, just wait to make a final judgment until you meet him He's a good man."

"You said the same this about Hansen, and look how that turned out."

"Dad! Jack is nothing like Jonas."

* * *

Puppy and girl ran through the snow with barks and the occasional cry of "Back! Back you evil Orc!" From the looks of it, both had been playing outside for quite a while.

Jacob pulled the car up in front of the house. He was already quite sure that O'Neill was nowhere near good enough for his daughter, but he wouldn't say such a thing in front of the man's daughter. Which was probably why Sam had planned the first meeting between him and O'Neill this way.

The front door opened as he got out of the car. Sam stepped out of the house, giving him an unsure smile. After a moment, she turned to the girl.

"Luna, time to come back inside. Dry off Hypatia then change into the dress I laid out."

"Yes Sam," said Luna, running into the house, followed closely by the beagle puppy.

By this point Jacob had reached the porch Sam was standing on. After a quick hug, Sam motioned for him to go into the house.

"As soon as Luna finishes getting dressed, we'll head to the restaurant," explained Sam.

A public setting too. She was going all out for this.

It was then that he noticed something on her hand. The ring finger of her left hand. She didn't. She wouldn't. Who was he trying to fool? Of course she would. At least it was an engagement ring, not a wedding ring.

He'd talk to her about this later. "Should I give the book to Luna here or wait?"

* * *

Luna sat across from Sam, watching Jack and Jacob glare at each other. She rather liked Jacob (he'd given her the book Redwall by Brian Jacques), but obviously he and her father didn't like each other. Something had to be done.

"Father, are you and Mr. Carter going to fight?" she asked.

"No, of course not," Jack said a little too quickly.

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?"

"Well," said Luna, knowing quite well that while such a thing happened on a regular basis in the Wizarding world, it would probably not happen in the Muggle world. "The first time Mummy was engaged, Mr. Black-her fiancé-had to duel Uncle Lucius for the right to marry Mummy. Although how Mr. Black managed to win against Uncle Lucius, I don't know. I mean, Uncle Lucius killed him right in front of Mummy a couple months later. And Daddy would have dueled Uncle Lucius too, but Mummy had already been disowned because she had me."

"There will be no dueling," declared Jack. "Sam would kill us."

"Yes, I would," agreed Sam. "Wait-your uncle killed your mother's fiancé?"

Luna nodded. "He got off because he bribed the judge, jury, and police."

"That I believe," said Jack.

"Luna-" Jacob started to say.

"Is telling the truth, unfortunately," said Jack. "Her uncle is a member of the inner circle of a terrorist organization based out of the UK. From what I understand, when the government finally cracked down on them, a lot of the members managed to get out of it by bribery."

Jacob's eyes narrowed. "Your uncle wouldn't happen to be Luciuc Malfoy, now would he?"

Luna nodded. "Unfortunately."

"Does Jack…"

"Completely normal, I think," said Luna. "How do you know?"

"My parents graduated from Salem," he explained, ignoring the confused looks from both Jack and Sam. "Never got the letter myself, but my son, Mark went to Salem. Do you know where you want to go yet?"

"Hogwarts. Mummy went there and Ginny will be going there," said Luna. "Ginny's my best friend. She lives in Devon, so I don't get to see her anymore, but we write."

"Any idea on which house you want to get into?"

Luna shrugged. "The house system is flawed. They weren't very well thought out."

Jacob nodded his head in agreement. "So, when's the wedding?"

_

* * *

Luna,_

_Mum and Dad said they'd love to come to the wedding. Could you tell them congratulations for us?_

_I don't know… Toads aren't very good pets. But they are cute and slimy. Maybe you should get an owl so that you can talk to your father._

_I don't know what to say to you about Slytherins. Everybody knows they're evil, but that's just it. Why are they evil? Just as many dark wizards have come from the other houses, but the Slytherins get more press because their ambition generally leads to conflict. Everybody seems to forget that the Death Eaters weren't only Slytherin. Not to mention that Grindelwald was a Hufflepuff. The Dark Lady, Griselda, was a Gryffindor. Rowena Ravenclaw invented many of the spells we now consider dark, like legilimency._

_What are gremlins?_

Ginny

* * *

Mark glared at the man in front of him. He and his father hadn't gotten along since the death of his mother.

"What do you want?"

"Sammie's getting married," Jacob said.

"And?"

"Luna, her fiancé's daughter, is a half blood," explained Jacob. "But Sammie's fiancé knows nothing of the magical world. I want you to keep it that way. When she gets her letter the summer after next, I'll deal with the explanations."

Another glare. "Fine. You've delivered your message, now leave."

Once Jacob was gone, Mark sighed and shook his head. He remembered, all those years ago, when he'd received his letter from Salem. After a heated conversation with his father, it had been decided that neither his mother nor Sam were to know about magic. Even then, Sam would only be told if she received a letter as well.

He'd regretted that decision then, and her regretted it now. But that was in the past.

_

* * *

Ginny,_

_Sam's father is a squib. From the Carter family. He said that if you and your family didn't want to travel by plane to the wedding, you could use his floo. He also said I could use the family owl when I went off to Hogwarts because it doesn't get enough exercise._

_Oh, he gave me the book Redwall, by Brian Jacques for my birthday, even though it isn't my birthday yet. You should read it; it's really very good. _

_Father and Sam have sat a date for the wedding. It will be on May 11. I get to be a flower girl. What's a flower girl? Have you ever been to a Muggle wedding before? I don't think they use the handfasting ceremony. Father and Sam were talking about Catholic and Episcopalian churches. Do you know what a church is?_

_Oh, we're going to go see Father's family soon. I've never met them before. I think Father is going to ask one of my cousins to be something called the ring bearer. What's a ring bearer? _

_Do you know why Father gave Sam a ring when he asked for her hand? And why did he ask her instead of her father or brother (Sam's older brother Mark is a wizard, according to Mr. Carter). Muggles are so strange sometimes. Although, I suppose Sam would be a halfblood, even though she doesn't have any magic._

Luna

* * *

"Gentlemen, take your seats," said General Hammond. "Where's Capt. Carter?"

"Just arriving, sir," said Major Samuels.

"Carter?" asked Jack, wondering if there could be more than one Capt. Carter.

"I'm assigning Sam Carter to this mission."

"Uh, that's not a good idea," said Jack. "We shouldn't be in the same chain of command, sir."

"Why not?" demanded Hammond.

"Because we've already set a date for the wedding, sir," said a far too familiar voice. "I thought we already sent you an invitation, General."

"Where's Luna?" asked Jack.

"With my father. He volunteered to take her," said Sam.

"Luna?" asked Kawalsky

"My daughter."

"A friend of mine at the Academy is watching her until Dad gets in," added Sam.

"She's going to drive those cadets insane," muttered Jack.

Sam let out a laugh. "Actually, Gant and I think some of the cadets will to try to prove to Luna that gremlins don't try to take planes apart."

"I knew I shouldn't have let her watch the Twilight Zone," said Jack as Kawalsky and Ferretti snickered.

Hammond seemed to have finally gathered his wits. With a sigh he said, "We need both of you on this mission." He glanced around the room. "O'Neill, you're the leader of the first team," he began listing roughly half the people in the room. "Kawalsky, you have the second team…" Hammond's list included the other half of the room and Sam.

* * *

Jacob watched the little girl surrounded by a group of cadets, trying not to laugh. Even for a witch, Luna was beyond strange. There were times when he wondered if she acted that way on purpose. Then again, her mother had been Eos Malfoy and she'd been certifiable.

"Luna, they'll find out about the gremlins eventually," said Jacob. "Until then, they don't need to know." He turned to the cadets. "I'm sure you're supposed to be somewhere."

* * *

Sha'uri looked back at her brother, then went to follow her husband. She wanted to speak to O'Neill's chosen. It only took a couple moments to catch up to the fair-haired woman.

"You are O'Neill's chosen, yes?" said Sha'uri.

"Uh, yeah," said Sam. "Jack and I are getting married in two months. You're Dr. Jackson's wife, right?"

* * *

"Medic!" shouted Kawalsky. "We need a medic!"

Along with the soldiers, Dr. Daniel Jackson and Sha'uri walked through the gate.

_

* * *

Luna,_

_Dad says that the Carter family is really old. Older than the Malfoys. They were allied with the Longbottoms and Potters for centuries before they moved to the Colonies. Mom says congratulations on your father making such a good match._

_Your father really gave Miss Carter a ring? Do you think he knows to give her a wedding necklace during the ceremony? What's a church? Dad said he didn't know what a church was either._

_I just got my report card back and Mum is really happy. All my grades were really good. What about you?_

_Ginny_


	5. Chapter 4

Sorry about taking so long to update. I got delayed first by schoolwork and then by DH. I had to redo this chapter a bit to make sure it stayed cannon.

* * *

Chapter 4

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. The Tau'ri were a confusing people, that much was certain. However, they were fierce warriors worthy of respect.

"Daniel, if you need to, you and Sha'uri could stay at our place until you find one of your own," said Samantha Carter, O'Neill's betrothed.

Teal'c was still unsure as to why O'Neill had no problem with his betrothed being a warrior. On Chulak women learned to fight so that they could protect themselves and their family should another false god attack. They did not become soldiers. It was not that he found the idea of a woman warrior disturbing so much as he found the reality of it a bit confusing.

Perhaps it was a Tauri custom. He could certainly see both the benefits and the disadvantages of having women used as warriors in the military. Although from what he understood, military service was not obligatory in this clan-uh, country.

"Shit!" said O'Neill. "How long has Luna been with your father?"

Samamtha Carter visibly paled. "I don't think Dad will mind too much. He's already said that he considers Luna just as much one of his grandchildren as he does Mark's kids."

"But four days alone with Luna would be enough to drive anybody to the brink," said Jack. "I love her, really I do, but that girl's head is not in the same world as us normal humans."

"Who's Luna?" asked Dr. Jackson.

"My daughter," said Jack.

"You have a daughter," Dr. Jackson stated. "Why didn't you tell me about your daughter?"

"I didn't find out about her until after Abydos," explained Jack. "Her mother had decided not to tell me about Luna and marry another man. They only told me about Luna because after Eos and her husband died, they couldn't find any other family willing to take her in."

"When you meet her, don't mention her mother and stepfather," said Samantha Carter. "She has nightmares for weeks after they're brought up." She glanced at O'Neill, who gave a slight nod. "Luna, Luna saw them die."

Teal'c's respect for O'Neill grew in that instant. Obviously family was very important to the man. Few would take in a bastard child, even if it was their own. Samantha Carter's father was worthy of respect as well. To consider the child of his son-in-law on the same level as his own grandchildren was generally not done. At least not on Chulak.

* * *

Mary O'Neill had been more than a little surprised to find out that she had another grandchild. And more than a little disappointed in Jack when she'd done the math. Sarah had been pregnant with Charlie when the girl was conceived. At least her boy had done the responsible thing and claimed the girl as her own when her mother and step-father had died. 

She'd been sad when Jack and Sarah had their marriage annulled, shortly after their divorce was finalized. At the time Mary had thought that Jack would never have any more children. That he'd die alone.

But he'd certainly pulled it together after Luna came into his life. He was engaged to a very well educated woman from a good family (Samantha Carter was a General's daughter). And even if she was Episcopalian and had a full time job (as a Captain in the Air force), Mary was just happy that she would once again have a daughter-in-law.

The rest of the family… Well they'd come around eventually.

* * *

Sam bit her lip, trying not to let her nervousness show. This was the first time she or Luna would be meeting Jack's family (although she was quite sure that they would have nothing against Luna).

She couldn't help but feel relieved that Jack's sister Mary and his brother Robert couldn't come. Why did Jack have to have so many relatives?

* * *

John let out a sigh. If he hadn't known that Jack had truly loved Sarah, at one point, he would have thought he was merely trading up for a better model. Sam Carter was his eldest son's type. Short blonde hair, long legs, blue eyes. He had to wonder what somebody like her saw in Jack.

Oh, Jack was a good person. But he played the part of both the fool and the cynical asshole far too well for most to see.

And they were assigned to the same base as well. From what jack had told him, he and Sam had had to get a special dispensation of some sort. Luckily they'd already sent out wedding invitations by the time they were assigned to Cheyenne Mountain. And Sam's father was a very well connected General.

Although since his son was the second in command of this… Deep Space Radar Telemetry this, John had to wonder how it worked without breaking fraternization regulations. Then again, Major General Carter was well connected.

* * *

Sam tried not to show her fear when Jack's sisters, Lucy, Layla, Jane, and his sister-in-law, Catherine approached. She just knew they were going to question her. And with Jack speaking to his father, she couldn't hope for a rescue anytime soon.

"Sam, right?" said Lucy. "Jack said you were in the Air Force…"

* * *

Sha'uri watched the little girl play with her pet-what was the word again?-dag. Luna was, according to Daniel, unusual even for a child of the Tau'ri. However Sha'uri found the girl absolutely charming.

General Hammond had been most kind, helping to arrange for Daniel to buy a house near O'Neill's. Sha'uri rather liked the house. It was unlike anyplace she'd ever lived in. It had taken a bit for her to understand how to work the appliances, but Daniel and Samantha had been most helpful in that regard.

Since both SG-1, the team O'Neill was in charge of, and SG-2, the team Samamtha was a member of, were off planet, Sha'uri was watching Luna. Initially, Sha'uri had offered to watch Luna because she didn't want to be alone while Daniel was off-planet with SG-1 searching for Skaara, but in the month she'd been living on Earth, Sha'uri had grown very fond of the girl.

* * *

"Luna!"

"Hello Ginny," said Luna, in her usual dreamy tone.

The two girls hugged. Jacob smiled to himself, then went to greet the Weasleys. As far as Jack or Sam knew, he'd offered to let the Weasley family-and Luna-stay with him during the week leading up to the wedding. It was a cover to make sure that they didn't betray themselves in front of so many members of military personnel.

"Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley," Jacob said by way of greeting. "And this is…"

"A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Carter," said Mrs. Weasley. "This is Ron, our youngest son. The others are off at school."

* * *

"This is Mr. Murray."

Teal'c looked down to see Luna O'Neill and two red haired children he didn't recognize. "Greetings, Luna O'Neill."

"Hello Mr. Murray. These are my friends, Ginny and Ronald Weasley."

"Greetings," said Teal'c with a slight bow of the head.

"You're really tall," said Ginny Weasley.

"Indeed."

* * *

Ginny watched the wedding, wondering the entire time what was happening. It was completely different from any wedding she'd ever seen before, and was more than slightly confused. What was the purpose of those rings? And was there some sort of religious service as well? Ginny wasn't really sure.

She knew her parents were equally confused, but none of them said anything either. Luna was right. Muggles were strange.

* * *

Luna waited until he was alone before she approached. This needed to be said, and it would probably best if nobody else heard.

"Hello Mr. Murray."

Mr. Murray looked down at her. "Greetings."

"You need to go back before it's too late."

An eyebrow was raised at her.

"He's sick, and if you don't go within the next week, he'll be too ill for anything short of a primta to heal him."

"What do you know?"

"You need to bring him and you wife back here. They'll be safe here while he heals. General Hammond will make sure of that. Then they can go stay with Bra'tac."

With that, Luna walked away.

* * *

Mark Carter let out a sigh as he watched his sister dance with Jack. He wasn't sure yet if he liked the man, but he wasn't too bad for a military man. And Sam did seem to be very happy with him.

Ten minutes in his new niece's presence was enough to prove his father's concerns. Luna was certainly no ordinary witch. She was definitely a seer. And a good one at that. He'd had the girl read his tea leaves, tarot cards, a crystal ball, and his palm. He would have suspected her to be a natural legilimens, but he was the second highest level occlumens (It was important, as a lawyer, that his clients believed him capable of keeping their secrets).

The poor thing. Being a seer certainly wasn't the best thing for the girl. History was filled with seers that had been used, killed, abused, for their powers. And with a gift as strong as this girl had… she was in even more danger than the average person with the "inner eye".

* * *

Sitting at his son's bedside, Teal'c was left to wonder what Luna O'Neill was. If not for her warning, Rya'c surely would have died. Not only did he suffer from what the Tau'ri called Scarlet Fever, but also Drey'auc had been in the process of securing a primta for Rya'c.

How had Luna O'Neill known this? It made no sense.

* * *

Sam bit her lip, trying not to worry too much. After she and Jack had spoken at great length, they'd approached Luna about the subject. Luna had declared that a sister was a wonderful idea and they could go to Hogwarts together.

She still wasn't quite sure what to make of that. Even after Jack had explained that Hogwarts was the secondary school the Weasley boys attended. Some boarding school up in Scotland.

It had been relatively easy to arrange, once Jack and Sam had come to an agreement. So long as the girls didn't try to kill each other, they were going to adopt Cassandra.

Not that Sam thought the girls would try to hurt each other. It was more a worry that Cassandra wouldn't like Luna and vice versa.

Luna tilted her head to the side, giving Cassandra an unreadable look. Cassandra shuffled a bit, looking down at the floor.

"What games do you know?" asked Luna. "Do you know any jump rope games?"

Cassandra shook her head a bit shyly.

"Wait here," said Luna. She ran out of the room, reappearing a moment later with two jump ropes. "Come on."

The next thing Sam knew, the two girls and Hypatia were in the yard. From the sound of it, Luna was teaching her a game with strange rhymes involving counting and magic.

That had gone much better than she'd even hoped for.

* * *

_Ginny, _

_I have a sister now. Mother and Father adopted her. Father said she's from Toronto (that's in Canada), but he was lying. They found Cassandra on some sort of military mission. _

_I think you'd like Cassandra. She's really very nice and she's the same age as us. She'll be in the same year as us at Hogwarts, even though she doesn't know it yet. She's Muggleborn. _

_The children at school don't like her much. It's because she doesn't know about NSync or the Backstreet Boys or Britney Spears. I don't know what anybody would want to know about demon possessed, whores or boy bands that have signed deals with the devil to become famous. _

_Luna _

_P.S Mother said that if it was alright with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, you could visit for the last two weeks of August. We're going up to Father's cabin._

* * *

Jack couldn't help but be very satisfied by the way his life was going at the moment. He had a wife, two daughters, good friends. What more could a man want or need?

Alright, so Luna and Cassie had the strangest arguments (he still didn't know why they were talking about transfiguration or charms), but they invariably made up by the end of the day, if for no reason other than the fact that it was nearly impossible to remain angry with Luna for long. And Sam was still unsure about having children. Although that was more because she wanted to continue going off planet and was unsure as to whether or not Hammond would allow her back on SG-2 or another team after her maternity leave was up. Sam had no problem working in the labs while pregnant, but did not want to give up going through the gate.

At first he'd been a bit worried about who would watch Luna, and then Cassie if both he and Sam were stuck on base or off planet, but that fear had quickly been put to rest. Sha'uri was always more than willing to watch the girls, as was Jacob, and oddly enough, Dr. Fraiser. Then again, Janet Fraiser was probably Sam's closest friend in Colorado Springs.

* * *

For lack of anything better to do, Luna and Cassandra watched patiently as Mrs. Jackson tried to teach them to weave. Anything was better than worrying about what might happen to Jack and Sam. Not to mention that both girls came from societies where women were expected to fill very traditional roles.

Sha'uri had provided them with smaller looms than the one she used, designed specifically for those still learning and had left the design up to the girls. Which was why Luna was weaving various protection runes into her design. It was the only thing she could think of doing.

Oh, unlike Sha'uri and Cassie, Luna knew exactly what was happening. All three of them knew that Jack, Sam, Daniel, Teal'c, Lou Ferreti, and Charlie Kawalski had gone on a suicide mission to protect Earth, but they had not been given any details. Luna tried hard not to think of the ship she could feel far too close to the planet. She tried hard not to think of what could happen if they failed.

Instead she worked on carefully weaving a soft blanket with as many possible protections on it as she could manage without using a wand. Cassie, having picked up on what Luna was doing, paused in her weaving.

"What's that for?"

Luna merely gave her a serene smile. "Four will be five. Lisa or Bart will need to stay warm."

Sha'uri gave them an odd look while Cassie's eyes widened in understanding. "What do you think I should put in mine?"

Luna gave her a quick list of runes for pleasant dreams.

Not even three days into Cassie's stay with the O'Neills, she'd shown her first sign of accidental magic by making a monkey bar disappear. Luna had quickly begun telling Cassie about magic after swearing her to secrecy (until Sam and Jack knew about magic).

Cassie had told Luna about the Stargate and Hanka in return. It had been unnecessary to tell Luna how big a secret what Cassie had revealed was. Honestly, Luna thought the Stargate explained quite a few things (particularly about Merlin).

From what Luna understood, most on Hanka had considered Cassie to be something of a freak. Admittedly, their high priestess had shown an interest in training Cassie when she was older, but that had only made the girl more of an outcast than she already was.

* * *

Jack was a bit surprised when both Luna and Cassie had requested more weaving lessons not even a day after their return. But Sha'uri was very fond of the girls and teaching them to weave was obviously something all three enjoyed. As a result, nobody had objected.

Daniel had apparently bought or made several looms for Sha'uri not long after she first came to Earth. Although unfamiliar with Earth, she'd already begun to make a bit of money selling the cloth she made. Her rugs sold amazingly well.

Anything was better than thinking about Sam. SG-2 had been on some planet, Jack couldn't remember the designation, helping the people flee from the Goa'uld. Somehow Sam had been infected with a damn snake.

His wife, the woman he loved, was locked up with a snake in her head. Jack had never felt more helpless in his life. Not even when he'd been taken prisoner in Iraq. At least in Iraq he'd been able to something, even if it was just mouthing off to his captors.

Sam could die and there was nothing he could do. She could die just like the man on SG-2 had shortly after their mission to Chulak. They'd been unable to save him and they could very well be unable to save Sam.

What was he going to tell Luna and Cassie? Oh, Cassie could be told the truth, but Luna… He'd have to lie to her. And could he even ask Cassie to lie to her sister?

* * *

_Luna, _

_Mum said that it was alright for me to stay with you in August. I think she wants a bit of time with Ron before he leaves for Hogwarts. It will be his fist year, after all. _

_What's Cassandra like? Is she nice? Do you two get along? Does she like history or science or math or reading? Is Cassandra really a Muggleborn? _

_Mum was really excited when she heard. I think she expected Mrs. O'Neill to have a child instead of your parents adopting, but she's happy for you. _

_Ginny _


	6. Chapter 5

I'm surprised that nobody picked up on what my Simpsons reference meant. Or at least nobody tried to guess. Ah well. It should be pretty easy to guess. I'm still trying to decide if it should be a Bart or a Lisa and am open to ideas. I know this chapter is a page shorter than normal, but it seemed to me to be a good place to stop.

* * *

Chapter 5

Jolinar had quickly come to the conclusion that Samantha Carter-O'Neill was a most unsuitable host. One of the few things she and Sam agreed upon. The woman was far too attached to her husband and children to even consider leaving Earth for more than a week at a time and found the idea of sharing her body with one of the Tok'ra most disturbing.

With that in mind, Jolinar had decided to find another host as soon as the Ashrak was dealt with. Once that was over and another host found, she'd be free to leave Sam.

She only hoped that the Ashrak could be dealt with quickly. If she spent more than a week or two in Sam's body, the consequences could be dire. Jolinar had no desire to create a Harcecis. Luckily the child had been conceived before Jolinar's blending with Sam. As it was, so long as she did not spend too much time with this host, the child would likely retain no more than a few faint insights and memories belonging to Jolinar.

* * *

Sam stared at the wall of the infirmary, a hand over her stomach. Part of her was still furious. It wasn't so much that Jolinar had put her in danger as it was that Jolinar put her child in danger.

She couldn't help but blanch, just thinking about what could have happened. Sam hadn't even realized that she was pregnant. She didn't know how to feel about it. Oh, she'd wanted to have children with Jack… eventually, but it just seemed… too soon. Not to mention what could have happened to the baby during this entire incident.

The child might have retained some of Jolinar's memories (at leas that was what Jolinar had said). And the torture could have damaged it in some way. Not to mention that they both had naquada in their blood. Janet had no idea what that might do to an adult, let alone a child.

But Jolinar had only done what was necessary to survive. Sam could honestly say that she would have done the same, had she been a parasite. And Jolinar had given her life to protect both Sam and her child.

"Guess who's here to see you," said Jack.

Sam couldn't help but smile at the sight of Cassie and Luna. She wasn't sure how Jack had convinced General Hammond to let the girls on base, but she was glad that he had.

Ignoring how nervous Cassie seemed, Luna walked around Sam's bed wordlessly and sat down. Luna carefully curled up so that her head was on Sam's shoulder and Sam's arm around her waist. Cassie took the hint and curled up on the other side.

"Father wouldn't say what happened," said Luna, starting to sniffle. "Just that you got hurt."

Sam leaned back against the pillows, squeezing both girls. "Don't worry, everything's alright."

"You sure?" asked Cassie.

"Yup," said Sam. "I'll be just fine."

Even if she did want to mourn the loss of Jolinar, comforting Luna and Cassie was more important. Both girls had obviously been terrified.

* * *

Sam was allowed to leave the SGC two days later, with instructions from Janet not to come back on base for three days. Janet had given her until then to tell Jack about the pregnancy. Once those three days were up, Janet had to tell General Hammond. There was no way the Air Force would allow a pregnant woman through the Stargate.

Jack would no doubt be very pleased. Sam knew he wanted more children. She'd been on the pill, but that wasn't a hundred percent effective, as evidenced by her current state. And she certainly wanted this child. But worries about what Jolinar and the Ashrak's torture were still very strong. There was a possibility that the child had been damaged.

She glanced out the window. The girls were playing quite happily with the dog. They probably wouldn't come back inside until dark. Jack was in the living room, watching a hockey game he'd recorded two weeks earlier.

There probably wouldn't be a better time to tell him. Gathering herself, Sam walked into the living room, turned off the TV and VCR, then sat down next to Jack.

"What's going on?"

"We-we need to talk," said Sam. "Janet found something after Jolinar died."

Jack paled, sitting up straight, all signs of his usual irreverent behavior gone. "Is something wrong?"

Sam bit her lip, looking down at her lap. "We're not sure. I'm… well, I'm pregnant." She looked away. "Janet doesn't think that there's anything seriously wrong-she said I probably would have lost the baby if there was-but we can't be sure."

Jack seemed to have closed up completely. "Are you-are you going to keep the baby?"

After a long moment Sam said, "Yes. Jolinar made it clear that the worst that could happen to the baby because of her presence was that he or she would have her memories if I remained her host throughout the pregnancy, but a week or two wouldn't really give the baby anything more than a memory or two." Sam looked down again. "I'm more worried about what the torture and Jolinar's death may have done."

"Comere," said Jack, pulling Sam into her arms.

* * *

"What?" said Sam, blinking in surprise.

"Is it a Bart or a Lisa?" Luna asked, repeating her question.

Sam repressed the urge to bury her head in her hands. It was times like these that Luna made it obvious she was Jack O'Neill's daughter. "We won't know for a couple months."

"How long until the baby's born?" asked Cassie.

"Somewhere between seven and eight months."

* * *

General Hammond was a bit surprised when Col. O'Neill and Capt. Carter-O'Neill requested a meeting on the day Capt. Carter-O'Neill returned to active duty, but he had no problem granting their request.

Once the two arrived, Hammond noted how careful Col. O'Neill was with his wife. Several very protective gestures along with him opening the door for her (while she looked mildly annoyed), led Hammond to believe that Jack had taken the Goa'uld incident rather hard.

"At ease," said Hammond after they saluted. "Feel free to take a seat." Col. O'Neill moved to help Capt. Carter-O'Neill into her seat only to be waved off. "Now what is this about?"

"I'm pregnant, sir," Capt. Carter-O'Neill said after a moment.

He hadn't expected them to start a family so soon. "What are your plans?"

"I would like to request that I work in the labs on base while pregnant and return to SG-2 or another team once the baby has been born and my maternity leave is up," she said quickly.

At least it was a reasonable request. She was far too valuable to the program to leave-at least in Hammond's opinion. He couldn't actually see anything wrong with her request.

This was actually the first such request. The other four women on base who had become pregnant during his time in charge of the SGC were not members of SG Teams. Which led to questions of what to do in situations such as these.

"Starting today, you are reassigned to your lab, Capt. Carter-O'Neill," said Hammond. "Once your maternity leave is up, I will reassign you to an SG Team." He paused, giving them both sharp looks. "In the future, please request to be taken off your team before attempting to have a child."

She blushed. "Yes sir."

_

* * *

_

_Mother just told us that she's pregnant. Our younger brother or sister should be a couple months old by the time we get to Hogwarts._

_Cassie seems to prefer learning about healing to anything else. Mrs. Jackson has been teaching us to weave and we've already started making blankets for the baby. Sometimes we argue. She thinks transfiguration is more important than charms._

_There was some sort of accident at Father and Mother's job and she was injured. But the baby will be fine. Cassie thinks the baby will be a boy and I think the baby should be a girl but then I think it should be a boy. I just can't decide which it will be._

_The baby has magic, of that much I am sure. But I just can't figure out it's gender._

_I don't think Mother or Father would notice if you flooed over to Grandfather's house like you and your parents did for the wedding. It's really much cheaper than an international plane ticket. And anyway, planes have gremlins._

_Luna_

* * *

Jacob blinked. Luna certainly was like Sam. The girl was reading a book on wormholes while knitting… were those baby booties? Cassie, his other granddaughter, was reading a book on healing spells and potions while crocheting baby sized clothing.

Both girls were rather taken by the idea of a younger sibling. He still had a bit of difficulty believing that he'd gone from two grandchildren he rarely saw to five (even if one hadn't been born yet).

He hoped to at least see Luna and Cassie to Hogwarts before… He shook his head. Healers could handle anything from illness to injury, but cancer was one of the things they had as much skill combating as Muggles. At least the Muggle techniques worked better than their magical counterparts.

His Sammie was going to have a baby. Jacob felt a wave of sadness. He didn't even know if he'd live to see his fifth grandchild born.

With both Jack and Sammie needed on base (it was their last day before their vacation time began), he'd volunteered to take the girls for the day and night. With the Weasley girl arriving that evening, Jacob didn't want to leave anything to chance.

At least Luna had found herself a good friend. While Ginny Weasley did come from a family loyal to Dumbledore, her opinion on the so-called leader-of-the-lightside was refreshingly cynical. Apparently she'd been annoyed when nobody had been able to explain what exactly made Albus Dumbledore so great.

At half past five the fire turned green, signaling the use of floo powder. Seconds later Ginny and her trunk stumbled out. While the girls greeted each other, Jacob flooed the Weasleys to inform them that Ginny had arrived safely.

* * *

Cassie was rather relieved to meet Ginny, if only because of how normal the girl was in comparison to Luna. That wasn't to say she didn't like Luna. Luna was much better to Cassie than any of her siblings back on Hanka had been. And sometimes Cassie wanted to have a normal conversation with somebody.

The three of them sat in the guest room of the Carter house. She and Luna had spoken about wizarding oaths and the idea of blood brothers at great length before Ginny's arrival.

She knew that if she had been raised by anybody other than her parents, she'd never consider going through with something such as what Luna was suggesting. But on Hanka her parents had been what Luna called abusive and negligent (after hearing Cassie's description of what her home life was like).

Her father had regularly beaten her and her brothers. Her older brothers had made their opinion of Cassie and her "strangeness" quite clear. As for her mother… the woman had been too busy being the perfect subservient wife to notice her daughter for any reason other than a scolding.

Jack and Sam O'Neill were so different from what she'd expected that at first she hadn't known how to react. Luna had been a great help her first couple of days on Earth. Cassie could certainly see the appeal of Luna's suggestion.

Her family was dead. And if she had still been on Hanka, Cassie knew she'd have been begging Lady Elena, the high priestess to take her into the sisterhood early. She's gone to Lady Elena once a month since the woman had shown interest in eventually making Cassie her apprentice.

"This will just change me on a magical level, right?" said Cassie.

"Maybe genetic as well," shrugged Ginny. "It hasn't really been tested in the Muggle world."

"What are the words I need to say?"

Luna handed her a book, opened to the correct page. Cassie read it through, then nodded. "I'll do it. Is Ginny going to be the witness?"

"Yeah," said Ginny. "We don't need a wand for this, right?"

"Wands are needed for Wizard Oaths, not Blood Oaths," said Luna. She handed Ginny a knife. "You have to make the cuts and say those words."

Ginny locked the door while Luna and Cassie stripped. Like many of the older magics, this required quite a bit of time and work.

Once the girls were sure of what to do, Ginny began. "Cassandra of Hanka requests to join clan O'Neill of the House of Carter as the sister of Luna of Devon. Do you, Luna of Devon agree to allow Cassandra of Hanka to become your sister by blood?"

"I do."

Putting a small bowl below Cassie's right arm, Ginny took her right hand. Ginny cut her palm, allowing enough blood to cover the bottom of the bowl to leave her body before tying a long thin white piece of cloth around her hand. She did the same to Luna, using a different bowl, tying off her wound with the other end of the white cloth.

Taking a black owl feather, Ginny carefully began drawing the appropriate runes and symbols on their bodies. By the time she was done, it seemed that both their bodies were covered in writing. Cassie's blood had been used on Luna's body while Luna's was used on Cassie.

Cassie had researched this blood oath after Luna's suggestion. It was more a ritual than an oath, but since the words of an oath were involved and it wasn't actually dark magic, it qualified under the category of oath. The runes on Luna were meant to drive out all magical (and maybe genetic) connections between Cassie and her family. The runes on Cassie were to replace her magical connections (and DNA) with ones that would have belonged to any full sibling Luna may have had.

With a nod from Ginny, Cassie began her part of the oath. "I do hereby swear on my life and magic to be a loyal member of clan O'Neill, a daughter of the House of Carter, and blood sister to Luna of Devon."

"I do hereby swear on my life and magic to be blood sister to Cassandra of Hanka, now loyal member of clan O'Neill, a daughter of the House of Carter," said Luna.

"May magic find you worthy members of clan O'Neill and good daughters of the House of Carter," said Ginny.

The next thing Cassie knew, they were surrounded by a blindingly bright light. When the light dissipated, the runes covering her and Luna's bodies were gone. A quick check showed that the leftover blood in the bowls was gone along with the black feather. Luna carefully removed the white cloth, revealing their healed hands.


	7. Chapter 6

Alright, I know Luna is a bit more serious in this chapter, but it's important. And I'm still open to suggestions on the Bart/Lisa debate.

* * *

Chapter 6

The cabin and the 943 square acres it sat on had been in the family for a little over a century, built by Liam O'Neill for his wife. It wasn't particularly big or luxurious, but it served its purpose. Jack had inherited the cabin and it's land from his grandfather, a decade earlier.

The first floor contained a kitchen/living room with a table big enough to seat ten-more if children were willing to sit six to a bench meant for three-a master bedroom, and a bathroom. The loft was separated down the middle, one side for the girls, the other for the boys. On each side were a bunk bed, a twin sized bed, along with a wardrobe and four trunks, generally used as chairs.

When Ginny learned that originally the cabin had housed Jack's great-grandfather, his wife, and his thirteen children, she realized that perhaps the Weasleys didn't have it so bad. After all, except for the twins, everybody had their own room. And their kitchen and living room were much larger.

Three days after their arrival, Ginny, Luna, and Cassie set off on a day long hike. Having taken the girls out hiking twice before and knowing that Luna had wandered the entire length and width of the property in her previous visits, Jack merely reminded them not to cross the fence. Sam made them a lunch and told them to be back by supper or she and Jack would start searching.

Several minutes after breakfast they left. Cassie carried the basket of food, Ginny held a blanket and several containers of lemonade and water, and Luna carried several pieces of unfinished knitting, a small bag, a stone bowl and a ring made of the same stone, tied to a piece of string. Luna meandered through the forest, Ginny and Cassie following.

An hour after they'd set out, Luna came to a halt. "We should stay here for today."

Taking in their surroundings, Ginny could see why Luna wanted to stay. They were in a small clearing surrounded on three sides by forest. On the fourth side was a small river with a fence on the other side of it. From what she understood, the wood fence went around the entire property.

Ginny set out the large blanket in a nice shady spot, then put down the drinks. Cassie placed the food next to the drinks and sat down, leaning against a large oak tree. While they were doing this, Luna went to the river and filled the bowl with water.

As Luna walked back, Ginny took the time to look at the bowl. It was made of an extremely shiny dark stone with streaks of color through it Luna had called Obsidian. Luna set the bowl in front of her and started to unpack the small bag. She took out three cloth covered objects. She partially unwrapped each, putting them next to the bowl.

Each was part of a different way to tell somebody's future. Several bones with runes burned into them for runecasting. A set of tarot cards for cartomancy. The bowl and ring were obviously for hydromancy, and the crystal ball for gastromancy, both forms of scrying.

"Who shall I do first?" asked Luna.

"Cassie-you did my fortune two years ago," said Ginny.

Cassie shook her head. By this point Cassie had already picked up her knitting. "Luna can do my fortune anytime. We live together. And Father or Mother might come out here and interrupt. She should do your's first."

Ginny bit her lip. "Alright."

"Which method would you prefer?"

Ginny shrugged. "Hydromancy, I guess."

Luna nodded, then picked up the stone ring by the string tied to it. She held the ring over the bowl, allowing it to touch the top of the bowl. While Luna stared at the water, Ginny picked up her own knitting (her mother had insisted that she make something).

Several long minutes passed, leaving Ginny to wonder what Luna saw. She generally didn't scry for this long. Ginny glanced up at Luna, noting the way the blood had begun to drain from her face. Ginny put her knitting down. Luna was unflappable. What could she be seeing that would affect her like this?

Ginny remembered the fortune Luna had told two years earlier. It had been of an eventual bright and happy future where she had married the man of her dreams. It had been heavily implied by Luna that her husband would be a hero (the only man Ginny had been able to think of was Harry Potter-something which had caused Luna to smile knowingly). Luna had even mentioned that she would have three children-two boys and a girl.

Luna looked up. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" asked Ginny, feeling slightly frightened.

"Your future has changed," Luna said. "You can still have him-the man of your dreams."

What was Luna talking about? "What's changed? What's wrong?"

"There are several paths ahead of you, and soon you must pick one," said Luna.

"What are-what are my choices?" Ginny asked in a small voice, knowing that Luna had seen something truly horrible.

"You may still be able to get the man of your dreams, but your time together would be short, filled with hardship. He will die before he comes of age, should you choose him."

Ginny blinked, fighting back tears. This wasn't good at all. She wanted to marry Harry Potter and have his babies and live a peaceful life. She knew, in that moment that she would never be Ginny Potter, the mother of his children. She would never be the wife of the boy-who-lived.

She trusted Luna far too much to believe that she told anything but the truth. Luna had been her closest-and at times, only friend for the past decade. And Luna, no matter how strange she was, would never purposefully hurt somebody like this. If she said she saw his death, then she saw his death.

"What else?"

"War is coming. He will soon rise again, no matter the path you choose," said Luna, her face amazingly serious. "Your choice will lead to tragedy or joy for the side of light."

Ginny sniffled, accepting the tissue Cassie handed her. After blowing her nose, Ginny asked, "What do I need to do to be happy and have everybody else be happy too?"

* * *

It took Mark carter several minutes to realize what was wrong with the Carter Family Tapestry. At first he hadn't noticed anything out of place, but closer examination revealed the problem.

The name of his sister was in silver thread and her husband in white, denoting each as a squib and muggle respectively. A line lead from their names, showing Luna and Cassandra as witches, Jack O'Neill's daughters, Sam's stepchildren, and daughters of the House of Carter.

Cassie's line should have been made of blue dots instead of thick gold thread like Luna's. Not to mention that he hadn't acknowledged them as anything more that Sam's stepdaughters. They wouldn't formally be daughters of the House of Carter until he did the proper ritual (he'd been planning on doing it later that month).

What had happened? Cassandra had gone from being Sam and Jack's adopted daughter to being Jack's actual daughter. The only thing he could think of was that…

No, the girls wouldn't have done a blood oath. The blood brothers oath was incredibly dangerous. Few fully trained wizards were willing to go through with the oath because of how easy it was to make a mistake. Two girls who hadn't even started their education couldn't have successfully cared out the oath. Although Luna was frighteningly like Sam at that age… But where would they have gotten a witness?

It was all Mark could do to keep from cursing. Sam, Jack, Luna, Cassie, and their friend Ginny Weasely were off on vacation. The Weasely girl could have easily been their witness.

* * *

If Sam or Jack noticed that Ginny was a bit more subdued, the rest of her time among them, neither said anything. By the time that Ginny returned to the Burrow (through Jacob's floo), she was mostly herself again.

She saw her brothers off at the Hogwarts Express, her heart barely fluttering when she realized that she'd unknowingly spoken to Harry Potter. The entire time, she reminded herself that he wasn't for her, and that she would (according to Luna), eventually meet a man that she would love even more than she would have loved Harry.

But most of all, she reminded herself that first she would have become strong enough to survive.

* * *

"Luna? Is there something wrong?"

Giving Cassie a smile, she shook her head. This wasn't something easily explained. Nor was it something Cassie should hear.

Not yet, at any rate.

"Everything's fine, Cassie. Everything's fine."

Cassie gave her a look that told Luna quite clearly that her sister didn't quite believe the words, but wasn't about to argue. She then turned back to her medical text (bought by Luna as an early present for Cassie's eleventh birthday), leaving Luna to her thoughts.

Eos Lovegood may have been meant to die that day, a year and a half earlier, but Helios Lovegood had not. His death had put in motion quite a few changes, in more than just Luna's life.

For a moment Luna wondered if his death had been worth it. She'd seen visions of the future both with and without his existence. Some futures were good, some were not. And she had looked at those futures as judge, jury, and executioner, picking and choosing until the future she faced was the one she thought was the best for all involved.

Jack O'Neill had been chosen to father Luna mainly because Eos had felt, after seeing numerous possible futures, the daughter they created together was the best possible offspring she could have. And Luna had certainly inherited quite a bit from her father, even if it wasn't immediately apparent.

The Muggle DNA certainly did wonders to combat the inbreeding many pureblood families practiced. Jack was a capable warrior and good leader, something Luna had inherited. And unlike Eos, Jack was strong enough to do whatever was necessary to protect his family and those under his command.

The rather rare gene she inherited from her father was, in Luna's opinion, second only to her possession of Jack's willingness to do whatever was necessary, no matter the consequences. She'd done what had to be done, to reach a certain set of futures. And even if she'd shown a bit of weakness afterwards, she'd eventually gathered her strength. She'd moved on.

There was still much to do before He became an active threat once more. And she had to move all the pieces into place before then if she wanted her family and friends to survive relatively intact.

If a person or two had to die or suffer for her friends and family to be safe, so be it. She'd killed for them before. She had no problem doing so again.

* * *

Sam stood at the edge of her father's bed, asking herself once more why he hadn't told her. Why he hadn't mentioned his cancer. She knew quite well that he was dying. He'd probably be dead by the end of the year.

She put her hand over the barely showing bump. Luna was on the other side of the bed, whispering something to Jacob. He gave her a confused look, then whispered something back.

Luna gave him a smile and switched places with Cassie.

* * *

"You don't have to do this, Dad."

Jacob looked past his daughter to Saroosh and Selmak, his memories of what Luna had said coming back to him. "Yes, I do."

* * *

Before entering the Stargate, Jacob turned to his daughter. "Sammie, I need you to tell Mark something for me."

"Yes?"

"He gets to explain Salem and Hogwarts, I'll probably be out of town this summer."

Sam blinked, a bit confused. "Alright."

* * *

"Hello, Mr. Murray."

Teal'c glanced down at the girl. "Greetings, Luna O'Neill."

It was team night at the O'Neill house, hosted by Jack. The members of SG-1 and SG-2 were already spread out in the living room drinking and watching a hockey game. Sam, Sha'uri, Janet, Luna, and Cassie were supposed to go out on a "girl's night," some sort of female gathering, but Janet had not yet arrived.

"Do your people have arranged marriages, or do they marry for love?" asked Luna. "Mummy's first marriage was arranged, but he was killed before the wedding. Mummy was there when her brother killed him. When she actually married-after she had me-she married for love."

The two stood in the kitchen, just out of hearing range from the living room. Teal'c was quite sure that there was much more to Luna than there appeared to be, and knew that there was some sort of point to the conversation.

"My wife was given to me by my… former ruler," Teal'c said after a long moment. "I thought your people did not arrange marriages."

"Well that depends on where you live and your culture," said Luna. "Father's people believe in marrying for love, but Mummy's people generally arrange marriages. A lot of the… lower classes marry for love, but the upper classes have their marriages arranged. Mummy was a member of the highest class of society before she was disowned."

Before Teal'c had a chance to say anything else, she said, "I already know who I will marry, even if Father and Mother do not. If I must live among Mummy's people, and in the end I must, then I will use their ways to my advantage."

"Then your marriage is arranged. I do not believe Colonel O'Neill will allow you to enter in to such an arrangement."

"What Father doesn't know won't hurt me," Luna said with a smile. "I must live among them. I have no choice in the matter."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow.

"I will do anything to protect my family and friends, Mr. Murray." Luna's eyes were suddenly old. He'd seen the look in the eyes of old soldiers before, but never in a girl. "To protect them, I must rejoin my mother's people." She looked him in the eye. "And the marriage is not yet arranged. He does not yet know I exist, but eventually he will come to me, and we will marry."

"Indeed."

Luna was nothing short of a mystery. One he had no desire to unravel. Teal'c had a feeling he wouldn't like what he would find.

* * *

By the time her birthday came around, Luna was thoroughly confused and quite annoyed at her younger sibling. Every time she did his/her fortune, she received a different answer as to the baby's gender. She had even checked to see if it was twins, but was unable to get a definitive answer. And Jack and Sam had decided that they wanted to be surprised, which meant she couldn't ask them.

Cassie found this endlessly amusing. At least until Luna pointed out that the gender of the baby could affect her efforts to tell the future.

Two weeks into February, the small family woke up to the declaration that it was time to go to the hospital. Luna couldn't help but be grateful that her prediction that the baby would be born on Valentine's Day was correct.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"You confused me on purpose," Luna hissed at the infant. It was three days after they had returned from the hospital and the first chance Luna had gotten to speak with her new sibling. "Good job. Constant Vigilance."

Alright, so the baby probably didn't understand a word of what Luna said, but Luna didn't care. The baby had used its magic to successfully mask itself to the point where a seer hadn't been able to tell the gender or number. The baby would doubtless grow up to be very powerful.

* * *

"Cassie, we'll be going to Hogwarts soon."

She looked up at her sister. "Luna, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Do you know what House you want to be in?" asked Luna.

Cassie shook her head. "Haven't really thought about it, why?"

"War is coming, and soon even the House you're sorted into will affect your safety and happiness."

"I-I thought you said-"

"He won't care about your House, but others will. You must choose now so that you'll have proper arguments worked out for the sorting."

* * *

"Are you sure about this?"

"Kate, trust me on this," said Mark. "The girls' Hogwarts-and probably Salem- letters will arrive sometime within the next three days. My sister has no idea magic exists, and she'd be more likely to believe it if there was more than just me there to explain. The kids should meet their other cousins, and I know you've been dying to see the baby."

Kate Carter let out a sigh. "Did Sam really say that all four of us could stay with them? It must be a tight fit as it is. Adding two adults and two children into the mix can't help."

"Don't worry about it. We should only be here for a week."

With that Mark knocked on the door. A dog barked loudly as the unmistakable voice of Jack O'Neill said, "Gimme a minute."

Seconds later, Jack opened the door. "Hey Mark, Kate. Sam'll be glad you're here."

"Jack," Mark said by way of greeting while Kate said hello. "Kids, say hello to Uncle Jack."

Three year old Emily hid behind her father's leg while eight year old Anthony hugged Jack. Kate smiled and picked Emily up before following Jack into the house. Mark closed the door once they were inside.

"She's a bit shy," said Kate.

"Don't worry about it," said Jack. "Sam's still at work-one of the computers broke or something, but she should be back later tonight." He looked down at Emily and Anthony. "Luna and Cassie are out back playing with the dog."

Both Anthony and Emily perked up at that. Kate put Emily down. "Why don't you two go play with your cousins for a while."

"Straight through that door," Jack said, pointing to a screen door in the kitchen. Once the children were gone, he added, "The children will be staying in Luna and Cassie's room. Sam and I already set up some beds for them. The baby is in the nursery and you'll be staying in the guest room."

Mark nodded. From what Sam had told him, Luna and Cassie had insisted on sharing a room because it was "lonely at night."

"The baby…"

"Should be just about finished with the afternoon nap," said Jack. "Why don't I show you to your room and the kid's room and then we'll go get the baby."

* * *

Mark couldn't help but roll his eyes as Kate cooed over the baby. The woman would probably be bugging him about a third child once they returned to San Diego.

However Mark had no desire to deal with the problems that could occur because of a second son. Then again, there were potions that could guarantee the gender of a child. Maybe Kate would like a second daughter.

Sure, there was the problem of providing a dowry, but Mark knew that there was more than enough money in his account for that. And his law firm was very successful.

Luckily, Jacob had already arranged for some of his money to be put aside earlier that year. Since Luna and Cassie were daughters of the House of Carter, it was the responsibility of either the head of house (his father), or Mark himself as heir to the House of Carter, to ensure that the girls had proper dowries, educations, and marriages. But unless Sam and Jack spoke to him about it, Mark had no intention of allowing Kate to arrange marriages for either girl.

His marriage to Kate had been arranged while he was in his first year of schooling at Salem. And he had to say that he'd never regretted marrying Kate Diggory.

The customs regarding arranged marriages in the wizarding world were… odd, to say the least. The mother, grandmother, and aunts of the witch in question decided which wizard the girl was to marry (taking any preference the child may have into consideration), then contacted the mother of the wizard in question. Then the women of both families met, including the girl, to arrange the contract itself.

Once the contract had been arranged, the witch and wizard would be considered intended for each other, but the actual date of the wedding would not be decided upon until the wizard proved himself in battle. To prove himself in battle, the wizard would have to duel one of his intended's male relatives (and while the boy didn't necessarily have to win, he did have to prove he was a competent warrior). Only then could the wizard and witch be considered betrothed. Once they were betrothed, the marriage generally happened within the year.

Amos Diggory had put him through quite the fight when the time came. But Kate was by that time his only female relative. Mark was just grateful that Kate was nothing like her annoyingly pompous cousin.

"I understand the first name, but I cannot figure out why the girls kept giggling over the middle name," said Kate, both men knowing she spoke about the child in her lap. During the baby's baptism a month earlier, Luna and Cassie had discretely giggled every time the infant's middle name was mentioned.

Jack shrugged. "Sam said I wasn't allowed to name to baby or any future children because I'd name them after the Simpsons, but she let me pick the middle name."

Mark couldn't help but snicker at that. Luna and Cassie loved watching the Simpsons and had, without fail, watched it every day-except for when they were at Jack's cabin. And that was only because the cabin didn't have a TV.

"Wait, what does the name Elspeth Margaret have to do with the Simpson family?" asked Kate. "None of the members I've met have been named Margaret."

Mark winced mentally. Kate was enough of a pureblood that she thought television odd and frightening. Both his parents had been squibs. Squibs more than capable of surviving in the Muggle world.

"Kate doesn't watch TV much. I don't think she even knew the show existed," said Mark. At least it was the truth.

Jack gave him a look. "Ri-ight. You never did mention the reason you're here."

"Can't a man visit his younger sister?" asked Mark. Then he sighed. "I'll explain when Sam gets back from work. I don't want to do this twice."

* * *

"We've been around since the beginning, you know," Luna said. "We just made sure you didn't notice."

"What are you talking about?" asked Sam, feeding Elspeth a bottle of formula.

"I thought I was the one who was going to tell them," said Mark.

Kate, Mark, Cassie, Luna, Sam, and Jack were in the living room. Emily and Anthony had already been sent to bed. Sam had gotten back rather late, because the entire computer system on base had been malfunctioning and it had taken quite a while to fix the problem.

"They should know the story. They should know where we-they as well, come from," said Luna. "Mummy's specialty was our ancestor's technology. She spent her life studying them, their technology, their culture, and their knowledge. I've read all of her notes, all her books, all her theories. They need to hear it from the beginning."

Mark gave Luna a hard look. "Alright."

"Our people were not from Earth originally," Luna said. "They ran from Wraiths. Ran, ran, far away. They came back to Earth to live and they married the locals. It couldn't have been known. The first thing to go was the gene. It didn't like to stay with the Magic-"

"Magic? Magic isn't real," interrupted Sam. "I know you like to think those sorts of things are real, but-"

"Sam," interrupted Mark. "Magic is real. I'm a wizard, my wife is a witch, and Luna, Cassie, and Elspeth are witches."

"That's ridiculous. There is no such thing as…"

Sam's voice trailed off as Mark turned the coffee table into a kitten with a stick. Her mouth opened, once, twice, then three times without sound. She then began spouting off how it was scientifically impossible and the result of some sort of slight of hand.

In the end, it took over three hours to convince Sam that magic was indeed real. The entire time, Luna sat back, watching Jack as he absorbed the information silently. Nobody bothered to ask Luna to finish her… story. And perhaps it was for the best.

* * *

The letters arrived the next morning. The night before, both Sam and Jack had requested the day off because "Sam's brother and his family was visiting." Luckily, neither SG-1 nor SG-2 (Sam had rejoined the team at Kawalsky's insistence) had an offworld assignment.

"Stay here please," Mark said, each time an owl delivered a letter. "We should have your response soon." He would then give each owl some of the bacon that was meant for breakfast.

By the time breakfast was over, thirteen letters had been delivered to each girl. Neither Jack nor Sam had said anything, though Luna was sure that Sam wanted to speak.

"These are invitations to various schools of magic," explained Mark. "I went to Salem, Kate attended Beauxbatons, and Eos Lovegood nee Malfoy attended Hogwarts. I know for a fact that Ginny Weasley will be attending Hogwarts and that Luna wants to attend Hogwarts. No matter which school the girls are sent to, the school will not offer any form of Muggle education-uh, these schools only teach magic and subjects useful to magic."

"That's not acceptable," snapped Sam. "The girls are going to go to high school and get their diploma."

"Dad's already arranged for them to be tutored on the weekend while at school and during the weekday when they're on vacation. He insisted on paying for it himself," said Mark. "He did the same for me when I was at Salem."

That seemed to calm Sam down a bit. "Which schools are these for? And would the girls have to learn another language? How far away are these schools? Which offers the best education?"

"Well let's see which invited them," said Mark, starting on the pile closest to him. "Tara-good for the old magics, but you need to know Gaelic and they don't offer an acceptable level of education in the newer magics. It's in Ireland"

He put the invitations from Tara to the side and found two more matching invitations. "Salem. It's a good school-the best in the Americas. Good education, but it focuses on the newer magics." They were put in a different pile.

"Durmstrang," he said, pulling out two more. "Tough school, they'd need to learn both Russian and German. Nobody's sure the exact location of the school, but it's in Eastern Europe somewhere. I wouldn't let any child of mine be sent there. They teach things which most countries banned. Magics that were banned for good reason." They were put with the invitations to Tara.

"Let's see… Beauxbatons. Very good school, but they would need to learn French. They don't often have students from outside of Western Europe and the Mediterranean. The girls would be ostracized at the very least."

The Beauxbatons invitations joined Durmstrang and Tara. There were three invitations from various Asian schools, one from the school of magic in Alexandria, Egypt, two from South American schools along with one from Canada. The invitations from the Canadian school joined the one from Salem while the rest went into the reject pile.

Finally, he picked up the last two letters. "These are from Hogwarts. Hogwarts is the oldest school of magic in the world, founded a millennia ago. Before that time, witches and wizards were taught by apprenticeship. It's also the best school in all of Europe. It teaches a well balanced course load of both new and old magics, though it's not particularly liberal. Small student body and class sizes smaller than any other school. They're very selective and invite only those they feel are powerful enough.

"They don't generally invite Americans. Most, if not all of their students are from the British Isles. The only reason why Cassie may have been invited is because her sister is still a citizen of the United Kingdom."

"Which school do you want to attend," Jack asked.

"Hogwarts." Luna gave him a look that made it clear that she would accept attending no other school. "I've been registered for Hogwarts since I was born. Mummy went to Hogwarts. Ginny will be going to Hogwarts."

"Cassie?" asked Jack.

"I want to go too," said Cassie.

"Where is Hogwarts?" asked Jack.

"As far north as you can get without leaving Scotland," said Kate. "My nephew, Cedric, is about to enter his fourth year there. If you send the girls there, I can ask him to keep an eye on them."

"Which school is better, Hogwarts or Salem?" asked Sam.

"Hogwarts," Kate and Mark said in unison.

"You two are sure about this?" asked Sam. "Hogwarts is very far away."

Luna and Cassie nodded.

"What sort of education does Hogwarts offer?" Sam asked with a sigh.

"Until Fifth year Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Astronomy, and Flying lessons their First year (yes, witches and wizards fly on brooms). Once they reach their third year, they must pick at least two more subjects to take. These subjects include Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Healing, Ancient Runes-that's important for the old magics, Arithmancy, and Muggle Studies." Mark paused; glad he'd done research on various magical schools in preparation for this.

"At the end of Fifth year they sit for their OWLs (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) in each subject they take. Their grades on these tests influence which NEWTs classes they can take. NEWTs, or Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests. These are standardized exams very well respected in the international community. If they doe well on their NEWTs, they could get a job in any country with those scores alone."

Sam let out a sigh. "What do we need to do to accept the invitation to Hogwarts?"

"I'll take care of it," said Mark. "As soon as I'm done with that, we might as well get the girls their school supplies. We should be able to get most, if not all of the things on their list in Denver."

* * *

Several hours later Mark led the family around Denver from magical store to magical store. Unlike their British counterparts, American wizards and witches believed in hiding in plain sight. There were roughly fifty-three magical stores hidden like the Leaky Cauldron throughout Denver.

And if Sam was the only one that actually had to be led into the stores, only Luna noticed.


End file.
